Petals from the sky
There's not much in terms of accolades that Sachin Tendulkar has not seen during his 198-Test career but the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) is planning quite an elaborate celebration for his 199th at Eden Gardens. According to NDTV, there are plans to shower 199kg of rose petal on Tendulkar when he bats in the second innings of the Test. Hopefully not all at once.

Guest list
Viv Richards and Shane Warne have been invited by the CAB to attend Tendulkar's penultimate Test, according to CNN-IBN. They are also reporting that, on day three, there are plans afoot to send 199 lanterns into the sky.

Which pitch?
A venue for an international game is usually not supposed to host a domestic match for two weeks prior to the fixture. However, the CAB asked the BCCI for permission to host the Bengal-Baroda Ranji Trophy game at Eden Gardens in order to try out the pitch ahead of Tendulkar's 199th match. But the Eden Gardens curator, Prabir Mukherjee has said in the Telegraph that he cannot risk wear and tear on the surface by playing a first-class game on it so close to the Test.

550,000,000

The approximate number of people in India today who had not been born when Sachin Tendulkar made his Test debut in 1989 (calculated from
these figures). His batting has been so erotically outstanding that the global population has increased by almost 2 billion during his career, with the biggest increase, understandably, in India itself.